Dispute over control of Sicily and trade routes in the western Mediterranean brought Rome into conflict with the powerful North African city-state of Carthage.

Dispute over control of Sicily and trade

routes in the western Mediterranean

brought Rome into conflict with the powerful North

African city-state of Carthage

Carthage

Carthage had been

founded as Phoenician colony 500

years earlier

Result was the three Punic Wars

264-146 BC

FIRST PUNIC WAR• Primarily a naval war

– Tactics involved maneuvering your ship in such a way so that you could ram and sink enemy

• Carthage very good at this because of long experience as naval power

• Rome had small navy and little experience in naval warfare

– Defeated time and time again by larger and more experienced Carthaginian navy

ROME WINS THE FIRST ONE• Rome would not surrender

– Finally turned the tables on Carthage by changing rules of naval warfare

• Equipped ships with huge hooks and stationed soldiers on ships

– Would hook enemy ship, pull it nearby, and board it with soldiers

– Converted naval warfare into mini-land battles

• Something Rome was very good at

• Won First Punic War as a result

SECOND PUNIC WAR

• Carthagian general Hannibal surprises Romans, leads army from Spain, through southern France and the Alps, and invades Italy from the north– Defeats Roman armies sent

to stop him several times but hesitates to attack Rome itself

• Too well fortified• Settles instead on war of

attrition in hope of destroying Roman economic base

ROME WINS THIS ONE TOO

• Unable to defeat Hannibal in Italy, a Roman army sailed across the Mediterranean, landed in North Africa, and headed for Carthage– Led by patrician general

Scipio Aemilius Africanus– Hannibal forced to leave Italy

to protect Carthage• Defeated at the Battle of

Zama, fought outside the walls of Carthage

Hannibal

THIRD PUNIC WAR

• Carthage finished after Second Punic War– Hannibal committed suicide– Economy shattered– Lost all territory to Rome– But some Romans feared it

might revive someday and challenge Rome again

• Notably Cato the Elder– Pushed for another war

that would wipe Carthage off the face of the map

Cato the Elder

ROME WINS A THIRD TIME• Due to Cato’s persistent efforts,

Rome declares war against defenseless Carthage– Wins easily– Entire population of city sold

into slavery– Everything of value carried

back to Rome– Everything else burned and

dumped into the sea– Site sown with salt so that

nothing would ever grow there again

– Carthage completely disappeared

Rome drawn into the affairs of the successor

kingdoms

Successor kingdom

increasingly called on Roman aid in their incessant

wars against each other

Rome always responded in the

belief that achieving a balance of power in the east

was better than having one

successor kingdom become too

powerful and challenge Rome

Rome eventually became weary of

playing this endless refereeing role and

realized that the continued

independence of the successor kingdoms

threaten Roman interests

Took over Greece, Macedonia, some of Asia Minor, Syria, Aegean and eastern Mediterranean islands

by 133 BC

Later, the conquests of Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey

Magnus, and Julius Caesar would add more territory

Gaul, the rest of Asia Minor, Mesopotamian, Mediterranean Middle

East, Belgium

ROMAN REPUBLIC

• Was not a static institution but rather a continually evolving structure

– Political participation and eligibility to run for office widened over time

– Powers of various assemblies and elected officials also changed with time

– But it also became increasingly corrupt

BIG PROBLEM

• Ambitious politicians (who were also always military commanders) all tried, and eventually succeeded, in subverting republican institutions in order to achieve personal dictatorial power over the empire and its wealth– Marius, Sulla, Publius

Clodius, Pompey, Marcus Crassus, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Octavian/Augustus

Julius Caesar

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

FALL OF THE REPUBLIC• Civil wars racked the empire during

the last century BC– Marius vs Sulla; Pompey vs

Caesar; Octavian vs Marc Antony– Together they ultimately

destroyed the Republic• Accompanied by increased

level of political violence within Rome, the murder of political opponents, the destruction of property, physical intimidation, riots, armed clashes

– All became part of everyday politics and contributed to decay and death of the Republic

Publius Clodus

Cicero

Titus Milo

Pompey Magnus

PATRICIANS• Original aristocracy of Rome

– Had been distinguished citizens who advised Latin kings

– Played leading role in overthrowing Etruscans• Control strengthened by institution of clientage

– Client was a free man who pledged himself to a patrician (called patron)

• Honor-bound to serve interests and obey wishes of patron

– In return the client received favors– Originally used to create political bases for

patricians• Wealth based primarily on ownership of farmland

and/or urban real estate– Originally possessed monopoly on membership in

Senate and various elected offices

PLEBEIANS • Free men who could not trace their

ancestry back to advisors of Latin kings– Did not become clients– Number swollen by immigrants

who moved to Rome during Etruscan period

– Many were well-off and served in the army under Etruscans

• Etruscans had promoted their interests and protected their civil status

– With overthrow of Etruscans they lost protector

• Patricians would not let them share in government

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION

• Result was long-term power struggle within Rome as patricians attempted to preserve their exalted status and monopoly of political power and plebeians tried to gain a share of power that corresponded to the contribution they made to Rome’s success and prosperity– Result was a blurring and mixing of original social

distinctions and gradual emergence of a new hierarchy based on wealth

– Parallel political evolution in which the patrician monopoly on government gave way to the domination of the wealthy (whether patrician or plebeian)

ROMAN CITIZENSHIP• Entitled a man to vote in

elections• Could not be flogged as

punishment• Entitled to the Roman trial

process and had right of appeal

• Originally, both parents had to be citizens for that person to be considered a citizen– Later, only a person’s

father had to be a citizen to qualify his offspring as citizens

A NEW SYSTEM• By the late Republic, citizens divided into five classes and a large

group known as the capite censi (Head Count)• Membership in a class was based on wealth determined by a “means

test” given every five years– First Class was wealthiest, then Second Class, etc.

• Political power determined by class membership– Only members of First Class could become senators and highest

officials in Rome• By 100 BC, only 12 patrician families had means to be in First Class

– Patricians still possessed certain social distinctions but their automatic and unquestioned domination of society and politics was a thing of the past

• Historians don’t know precise economic criteria for membership in each class– But even the 5th class was wealthy enough to at least arm and equip

itself and serve in army

THE HEAD COUNT• Too poor to arm and equip

themselves for military service– Even after they became

eligible for military service with the reforms of Gaius Marius, they were still considered as a group too poor to be included in the five classes

– Most clients drawn from this group

– Freed slaves with citizenship belonged to this group

• Below them came non-citizen resident foreigners and slaves

SENATE

• Most powerful governmental institution in Rome during the Republic– Made up of 300

members– Descended from

the ancient advisory body to Septimontium kings

SOURCES OF POWER• Since most elected magistrates served

one-year terms, while senators had lifetime terms, the Senate was the only governmental body that could maintain a continuous policy

• Senators had to be members of the First Class– Only richest and most powerful men,

with hordes of clients, sat in the Senate• Almost all candidates for elected office

were selected from the Senate– Giving it indirect control over entire

government– Elected officials returned to Senate once

their term was up, making it a reservoir of political experience and wisdom

LIMITS AND STRENGTHS• Also had limits of power since it was an advisory body, not a legislature

– Did not possess initiative– Could not convene itself or initiate discussion

• However, once a senator’s advice was requested, he was free to talk about anything he wanted

• Opinions were requested of each senator in set order– Process continued until a viable proposal was produced

• After a passing vote, it was a senatus consult (decree of the Senate)

• Senate did reign supreme in certain areas– Controlled treasury– Declared war and appointed military commanders– Appointed provincial governors and regulated affairs– Had right, in times of civil emergency, to override all other bodies of

government and establish martial law• Senatus consultum de republica defenda

ELECTED OFFICIALS• Consuls

– 2 elected each year– Dual chief executives

• Censors– 2 elected ever 5 years– Kept and updated voting lists– Conducted means test for class

membership and Senate• Praetors

– 6 elected each year– Served as state’s attorneys

• Quaestors– 12 elected each year– Oversaw financial matters

• Aediles– 4 elected each year– Organized public ceremonies

POLITICS

• Candidates for public office seldom offered a program and organized political parties did not exist– Men were generally elected by the amount of bribes they offered,

the lavishness of their public entertainments, the prestige of their family name, and their family connections

– They also saw nothing wrong in using their elected office to get richer and oppose every measure aimed at helping the poor

• Such as cheap grain, distribution of free land, and cancellation of debts

POWER TO THE PEOPLE?

• Members of the Head Count also held political power (at least in theory)– Their assemblies, the Centuriate Assembly and

Tribal Assembly, held the power to elect magistrates, ratify treaties, and pass laws

– Yet the structure of these assemblies was rigged to give the wealthy good control of them too• These were the same men who already

controlled the Senate and monopolized elected offices

CENTURIATE ASSEMBLY

• Every citizen in Rome belonged to it– Regardless of economic status– Its main job was to elected magistrates

• Voting in assembly was not done on individual basis– All citizens were divided into voting units called centuries

• Each century had one vote in Assembly• Centuries were not equal in size

– Entire Head Count in Rome (300-500,000 people) were lumped together in one century

– The wealthy divided into numerous small centuries• Whenever a vote was taken, the wealthy, given their

control of the majority of centuries, always won

TRIBAL ASSEMBLY• Primary function was to pass laws• Voting also not done on an individual basis

– Done according to tribe• 35 in all; each having one vote• Rich and poor fairly equally distributed in each tribe

• Two stumbling blocks– Many members of Head Count did not attend meetings because that

meant taking off work• Attendance at Assembly therefore tended to be dominated by the

wealthy and their clients– Assembly could not do anything without the collaboration of a tribune

• Who only could introduce legislation• Any tribune of the ten could veto legislative proposal

– All ten had to agree before a bill became law» Not hard for wealthy to find one tribune to do their dirty work

for them

SUMMARY

• Roman Republic was strongly rigged to work only in the interests of the wealthy classes– No way a sincere reformer could “work within the

system” to change things• Everything was stacked against him

• The only way to effect change within this rigged system was to either threaten or use violence against the ruling class

• The rigged structure of government in republican Rome was therefore the first factor that contributed to the growth of political violence in the city-state